Working the phones, the lawmakers and the media, Schmidt, the administration's point man on Alito's confirmation, lamented that she had been pushed to the limit by the Senate's Democrats.

"The American people who saw this hearing today are going to be troubled by some of the tactics of the Democrats, who I think didn't focus on law, didn't want to have an uplifting debate -- but made a decision to try to attack Judge Alito and tear him down in the most unfair way," Schmidt, 35, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in one live interview.

Republicans -- even some frustrated Democratic opponents -- shook their heads in admiration. Thanks to Schmidt's spin, the incident ballooned into front page headlines and photos sympathetic to the judge.

Schmidt, a former California political operative, was a member of the exclusive "breakfast club" led by top White House adviser Karl Rove that ran President Bush's re-election campaign. Now he has brought his tough, colorful and famously quotable skills back to the bluest of the blue states to handle operations for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election effort.

Already, some at the White House's highest levels profess to be devastated by Schmidt's move.

"He and I have shared a work space every day for two and a half years -- and I'm crushed," said Bush White House communications director Nicolle Wallace, a Bay Area native who met Schmidt during the 1998 campaign when both worked on high-profile losing California GOP campaigns -- she for gubernatorial hopeful Dan Lungren, and Schmidt for U.S. Senate candidate Matt Fong.

Later, when Wallace was working for Bush's presidential campaign, she asked Schmidt to join her and has been a friend and colleague since, she said.

"He has what I would call an art -- an ability to fuse toughness and real sensitivity to the needs of the press," she said in a telephone interview this week.

Schmidt, she said, balances the loyalty to his candidates with the needs of the press to cover a campaign "better than anyone I've ever known."

And, she said, "he has the ability to think seven moves ahead of the other campaign."

Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman is equally effusive.

He calls Schmidt "a get-it-done kind of guy, who is good at bringing together a lot of different people with good results." He notes Schmidt has been unusually popular with the press as well as his bosses because "he's a great spinner and extremely effective at helping to form a message."

Schmidt, before leaving the White House, had successfully overseen the nominations of Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts and served as a spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney.

Former Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie, another GOP power player, said Schmidt's presence will certainly shape the outcome of Schwarzenegger's campaign.

"I've worked with him on a number of things -- the campaign, the Supreme Court," he said. "It's unique in the communications side of the business for people who are not only good at the messaging and the strategy, but also the management. In a race as big as Gov. Schwarzenegger's, that will bring a lot to bear."

Democrats, however, see Schmidt differently and say they won't hesitate to remind California voters of his links with Bush, Cheney and Rove.

"He's been sitting on Karl Rove's lap for the last five years," scoffed Garry South, longtime Democratic consultant and a campaign adviser to Controller Steve Westly, who is running for the Democratic nomination to face Schwarzenegger.

"Why would you pick someone who was director of press relations for the most disliked, discredited vice president since Spiro Agnew?" South said.

Schmidt, who Newsweek magazine described as a political "artillery shell," began in politics during grade school in his hometown of North Plainfield, N.J., where the son of a school teacher and a business executive first handed out campaign materials for Democrat Bill Bradley's 1978 Senate campaign.

Schmidt became a Republican admirer of Ronald Reagan, and moved into larger, and losing, campaigns -- for Fong, GOP presidential candidate Lamar Alexander, and later as spokesman for the Republican National Congressional Campaign Committee.

Schmidt has been at the center of the action at the White House, even traveling to Iraq for a month last year to help forge the administration's strategy on communications there.

Now Schmidt said he's glad to be back in California with his wife, Angela, a former Navy nurse. The couple has a 2 1/2-year-old child and another on the way.

"I love California," Schmidt said. "It's a great privilege to be able to come back and work for a visionary governor who has restored both opportunity and a sense of direction to the state."

Schmidt will be joined by White House political strategist Matthew Dowd -- another top campaign consultant. The duo will work closely with the governor's other staffer including newly hired chief of staff Susan Kennedy, a longtime Democratic operative.

Schmidt comes aboard the governor's campaign after a difficult year for Schwarzenegger, who engaged in a costly and unsuccessful ballot initiative campaign that drove his poll numbers down dramatically.

Schmidt's hiring, said UC Berkeley political scientist Bruce Cain, is a signal "this is a campaign that knows how to hit hard ... and (this) will be a tough campaign. ... This is an aggressive person who will not sit on his heels when the Democrats go after (the governor)."

Gillespie agreed, recalling how in the Bush campaign, "Steve was quick to make sure we did not allow any tactical (attack) to go unchallenged ... and that we highlighted the differences between candidates."

Schmidt "focused on issues and policies and not personal attacks. ... Steve is kind of old school in that regard," he said. "Campaigns are about contests and ideas, not who can slime (the opponent) better."

These days, Schmidt is smiling about his new boss -- and his newest race.